PORTLAND, Ore.—Freshman Nadav Dicovski scored Lewis & Clark College men's soccer's first two Northwest Conference goals since 1991 to help the Pioneers put in a scare in defending Northwest Conference Champions Willamette University on Tuesday night at Griswold Stadium. 
 
THE BASICS
Willamette 4, Lewis & Clark 2
(Lewis & Clark 0-10, NWC 0-6) 
(Willamette 4-5-1, NWC 4-1-1) 

HOW IT HAPPENED
 
Dicovski scored two goals in a 78-second span late in the first half to turn a 3-0 deficit into a 3-2 game and to give the Pioneers bench and faithful hope and life in the final game of a five-game home stand. The freshman scored his first collegiate goal in the 38^th minute and then tacked on a second in the 39^th for the program's first two conference goals and first two home goals of the season. 
 
Fellow freshman Nathaniel Pi-Sunyer and sophomore goalie Ben Tallent each picked up their first collegiate assists in the game. 
 
Tallent posted four saves on eight shots, including a huge one-handed save late in the contest to keep the Pioneers within striking distance late in the game. 
 
Willamette took an early 1-0 lead in the 12^th minute, when Fernando Bitelli snuck a shot inside the near post. The visitors made it 2-0 at 27:06, when Lucas Carballo's hard shot forced a rebound in front and Jett Starr poked it home. The Bearcats pushed their lead to 3-0 in the 34^th minute, when Tiago Palhetas curled in a left-footed, free kick from just outside the box. 
 
After struggling to create much offensively in their previous games on the hom estand, the Pioneers offense showed promise throughout the contest. 
 
In the 11^th minute, Wesley Esparza Salazar found Dicovski inside the box and the freshman played a one-touch pass to Ishan Abraham inside the six-yard box. Abraham was one-on-one with the Willamette keeper and lifted a shot just as the whistle blew for a fractional offside. The play was a sign of things to come. 
 
The Pioneers struck for their first goal at 37:21. Freshman center back Emmett Olson booted a long clearance into the attacking half and the Pioneers high-energy press took it from there. Dicovski headed the ball along and he and Esparza Salazar raced after the loose ball forcing a Willamette defender to pass the ball back to the keeper. The clearance from the keeper went straight to Pi-Sunyer, who calmly waited and threaded a pass to Dicovski in all alone. Dicovski beat the keeper to the ball and toepoked a shot past the diving keeper with his left foot that slowly trickled over the line for a momentous first conference goal. 
 
Lewis & Clark added their second goal of the game 78 second later. Sophomore Aashir Walson's sent a pass back to Tallent and with a player closing down on him, Tallent laced a pass well across midfield on a line. With Esparza Salazar occupying one of the two center backs with his run, Dicovski raced after the pass and held off his defender. He took one touch and then ripped a left-footed shot from the top of the box into the lower, right-hand corner to make it 3-2. 
 
Willamette would extend their lead back to two with a penalty kick goal in the 57^th minute, but it wouldn't extinguish the positive night for the Pioneers. 
 
Dicovski nearly finished off his hat trick in the second half, but a defender barely beat him to a loose ball in the box after the Willamette goalie couldn't catch a high cross. 
 
While Walson didn't get on the scoresheet, he consistently dribbled his way past multiple defenders and found space from the wings and the center of the field. 

BY THE NUMBERS

• Dicovski's first goal was the Pioneers first conference goal since October 26, 1991, when Patrick Cameron scored in the 88^th minute of a 4-1 loss to Pacific Lutheran University. 
• Dicovski is the first Pioneer to score multiple goals in a game since the program restarted last fall. He matches Ben Schwartz for the most goals scored by a Pioneer since the program restarted with two. 
• The two goals on Tuesday night marked the Pioneers most goals in a countable game since November 1, 1991 when Lewis & Clark tied Western Baptist Bible College (now Corban University) 3-3. 
• Dicovski's first goal snapped a streak of 522:04 since the Pioneers had last scored a goal. 
• Pi-Sunyer is the first Pioneer to record a goal and an assist since the program restarted. 
• Freshman Matthew Hurd made his collegiate debut by playing the final 10 minutes.  

WHO'S NEXT 
 
Lewis & Clark will travel to Washington to take on Whitworth University on Saturday at Noon.